MUSLIM LESBIAN COUPLE TO BE WED BY IMAM

Two South African lesbians from Delft, outside of Cape Town, will be married by an Imam under traditional Islamic marriage rites.

Sadia Kruger (53) and Zukayna Leonard (36) are already legally married, having tied the knot in 2007 in a civil union marriage at the department of home affairs.

The two women, who are Muslim, now plan to celebrate their fifth anniversary by getting married in a religious Islamic ceremony, reports the Daily Voice.

“It’s been my dream to get married in a midorah [gold-stitched headscarf] and I’m going to do it,” Leonard said.

The ceremony will be performed by the openly-gay Muhsin Hendricks, director of Muslim LGBT rights group The Inner Circle, who is also an Imam.

Hendricks, said to be the only Muslim cleric willing to marry same-sex couples in South Africa, has previously married seven gay and lesbian couples.

“The marriage follows the essential pillars of an Islamic marriage such as the Ijab [someone requesting] and Qabul [someone accepting] and the two witnesses,” he said.

The Inner Circle was established in 1996 as an underground social and support group to help LGBT Muslims reconcile Islam with their sexuality. In 2004 it was officially registered as a not for profit human rights organisation.

While same-sex civil marriage was legalised in South Africa in 2006, religious institutions can choose whether or not to consecrate these marriages.